Helping Hands
by Percyjacksonfan3
Summary: The Giant War is done and now the demigods have another problem. Relationships. Annabeth and Percy have another one of their fights and Piper, Jason and Leo get involved. But what can they do when Annabeth and Percy don't even know what they want from each other? Mentions of sex, nothing major just the word and kissing and absolutely no lemons. It's good, please try it!


**Disclaimer: I don't own a single thing. Sadly.**

"Annabeth!"

The angry cry from Percy reached Leo's ears just as he looked up to see the door to the Rec Room fling open to reveal an angry Annabeth. She met nobody's eyes and proceeded to storm into the chair beside Leo. She turned sideways in it (which Leo couldn't help but think must be really uncomfortable) and stared at the wall resolutely.

Percy appeared not 2 seconds later, looking as almost as angry as he had been while fighting Porphyrion in the Giant War. Then he had looked scarily furious. Now he looked like the next person to talk to him would most likely get Riptide pointed at their throat.

For a moment the son of Poseidon stood there, staring at his girlfriend looking partly incredulous, part angry, and Leo could see that all eyes of the counselors were focused on him. They looked wary, wondering what he would do next.

Then Percy's gaze shot to the rest of them, as if just realizing they were all there. His eyes flicked from one person to another and when they met Leo's he saw that the sea green eyes were full of anger.

But then Percy's eyes were drawn to the head of the table where Chiron and Mr.D were sitting and all of the tension went out of his shoulders. Leo saw him hold eye contact with Chiron barely a moment before he glanced around the table. When he saw that every other counselor was there and the only free chair was next to Annabeth again he tensed and turned around.

"I'm calling in sick today," he said over his shoulder in low tones, before grabbing the door and slamming it closed behind him.

Leo glanced to Chiron to see that he was staring at the door in shock. Then the centaur turned to look at Annabeth with a frown on his face. He seemed to be debating whether to say something but then he shook his head slightly, sighed, and stood up.

"Yes, well Percy has called in sick today and cannot attend this counselor's meeting. Will someone please inform him later on of what is said?"  
Chiron's voice was calm but Leo knew him well enough to detect the faint hint of worry there. Apparently this fight was a big deal.

There was a silence during which nobody volounteered and Leo saw Dionysus roll his eyes. It looked pretty freaky since his eyes were purple.

"Well don't all talk at once now." He shook his head before looking around. His gaze stopped on Piper and he pointed at her. "You there, Penny, you tell Pierre after the meeting is done everything that was said. Good?"

Piper opened her mouth to speak but seemed to think better of it and nodded slowly. Piper met his eyes across the ping-pong table and Leo grinned at her and stuck out his tongue. Piper returned the gesture with a glare, but before Leo could do anything else Chiron spoke again.

"On another note the Romans at Camp Jupiter were wondering if any campers would like to better instruct them on the dealings of Greek Fire. They would like to learn to make it and use it in case of any other attacks..."

Leo tuned him out as he did most meetings. It wasn't that he didn't think the topics were boring it was just that he figured he would learn sooner or later anyhow and his ADHD didn't let him sit still for almost an hour. Even now he was fiddling with a balloon, a wire, a light bulb and a hair net- courtesy of Chris Rodriguez.

Finally Mr. D dismissed the counselors and everyone got up. Well everyone except Leo who was still fiddling with the items in his hands. When he finally looked up he saw that he was alone in the room with only the Stoll brothers for company.

He hesitated before leaned over to Connor Stoll who was sitting beside him. "What was that all about?" He asked quietly, referring to the fight they had just witnessed.

The boy shrugged. "Who knows. Parobably something stupid, Percy and Annabeth always fight over stupid things."

Leo hesitated before speaking his next question, careful to make sure nobody could hear him if they were eavsdropping. "Do you think they're going to break up?"

Connor turned and shot him an incredulous look. "Break up? Are you kidding me? No way, they'll just fight for a few hours before making up like they always do. The making up part will involve kissing as it always does and Annabeth and Perce will be as close as ever."

Leo frowned at him. "How do you know?"

Travis's face appeared, resting on his brother's shoulder. "Connor keeps forgetting that you haven't been at camp long enough to see Percy and Annabeth fight."

"Oh right! You wouldn't know!" Connor exclaimed at the same time as Leo spoke, "umm... thanks?"

Travis shook his head slightly, "wasn't a compliment, bro."

Before Leo could reply Connor jerked his shoulder out from beneath Travis's chin and turned to Leo again. "Annabeth and Percy are known for their fights." He started.

Travis appeared again, nodding. "And those fights can get pretty bad."

"How bad?" Leo asked.

Connor and Travis looked at each other before turning to Leo. "Like World War 3 bad," Connor said.

"They fight all the time," Travis continued. "Everyone thinks it's their parents coming through. I mean Athena and Poseidon don't get along at all, they're pretty much opposites. It's not really surprising that the 2 fight all the time."

Before the Giant War Leo would have asked the question, 'who would be crazy enough to fight Annabeth Chase?' But after seeing how Percy fought in that war, knowing that the couple got out of Tartarus alive because of how strong they were... Leo knew if anyone could fight Annabeth and win it would be Percy.

"Usually they yell at each other, storm away, go find each other again, kiss a lot and walk away the happiest couple on earth." Connor said, "they're weird that way."

Leo glanced at the door. "But that seemed pretty serious."

Travis hesitated before speaking. "True, they did seem angrier than usual, Percy especially. He's usually the one who did something wrong because Annabeth gets mad a lot easier than Perce does. But when Percy gets mad, as you saw today, he gets_ mad_. But even then, they've always made up before. It'll be fine. If they broke up that wouldn't be good. For anyone."

"What do you mean?" Leo asked, confused. He understood if Percy and Annabeth broke up it would be bad but he didn't understand why it would be such a big deal.

Connor snorted. "They're friends with every single person in camp. It would make us all have to choose and since they probably wouldn't speak to each other anymore we would all have to make sure not to place them in any awkward situations. That means no inviting Annabeth to parties when Percy comes and vice versa. Making sure not to ask Annabeth if she's staying at Percy's this weekend or ask Percy when he's next gonna take a trip to San Francisco. It would screw everything up. I don't want to have to choose between them."

Travis nodded. "It would suck."

Leo stood up. "Then shouldn't someone try to make sure they make up?"

Travis and Connor stood up as well but Connor's face filled with alarm. "Oh no! Don't do that. If we've learned anything it's that we don't involve ourselves in their fights unless they involve us first. Last time someone tried, I think it was Butch, he ended up soaked to the bone with water and couldn't face Annabeth for weeks."

"Gods that was a long time ago wasn't it?" Travis asked his brother.

"It was! What prank did we pull that week?" Connor asked.

"I think... wasn't it the whipped cream in Drew's shampoo one?" Travis said.

"Oh ya!" Connor laughed. "That was epic! She couldn't get her brush through her hair for days!"

Leo turned away from them, his head filled with his own thoughts. If Percy and Annabeth didn't make up it would suck, big time.

He could help them stop arguing, Leo thought. How hard could it be? He lived on a boat with them for weeks, surely he knew them well enough by now?

First, he decided, he needed to know what the problem was. And only one person could tell him that.

oooOOOooo

He found her sitting on the beach.

Annabeth was wearing a Camp tank top, jean shorts and her hair was in it's always present ponytail. She had her knees to her chest and her arms were wrapped around them when Leo took a seat beside her.

He was quiet for a couple of seconds before he turned to her. She was tense, staring gloomily out to the water, and obviously not making eye contact with him.

"Hey, Annabeth," he said.

She sighed and dropped her head to stare downwards. "Hi, Leo," she mumbled.

"So..." he said. "You wanna talk about it?"

She looked up and finally met his eyes, and in those gray orbs Leo saw so much confusion, hurt and something that looked like regret.

"What's to say?" She finally said, looking away from him. "Percy's mad at me and I don't know what to do now."

"Do you wanna tell me what you guys are arguing about?" Leo asked her.

Usually he didn't involve himself with couples. He didn't know anything about girls except the fact that if you made them mad you were in serious trouble. They could be brutal.

But Percy and Annabeth were his friends, and they were the strongest people (individually and together) that Leo knew. They were made for each other and Leo was not about to let them break up or throw it all away.

"Did you know that Percy's my first boyfriend? And that I'm his first girlfriend?" Annabeth asked abruptly.

Leo was caught off guard and looked at her for a few seconds before replying, "no."

She shook her head. "Well we were- are- I don't know. What I'm trying to say is that I don't have experience with this. I haven't done it before, I don't know what to do. I've read countless articles on the internet, hundreds of books and even asked Sally, Percy's mom. Now that was an awkward conversation, but anyways. I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know how to handle certain things and I don't have a plan." She met his eyes. "And Leo that scares me."

He frowned. "Why?"

She shook her head. "I have plans for everything. Plans for every day, every task and every problem. I follow it step by step and always come out on top. It's in my nature. But with Percy... he's so reckless and carefree most of the time, and I can never seem to plan anything with him. Either something always goes wrong -gods you should have seen our first month anniversary- or he surprises me with something somehow. Most of the time I break my own plans. Like the day I saw him for the first time when we first met with the Romans- I didn't mean to rush him, believe me I didn't. But the moment I saw him... I didn't think, I just acted. I couldn't have stopped myself if I wanted to and deep down I didn't really want to."

She paused and took a breath. "He makes me act so different, throws all my plans out the window and stomps on them for good measure. And I don't know why, but with him, it works."

Looking around to make sure no son of Poseidon was around to stab him for daring to do this, Leo wrapped his arm around Annabeth's shoulders. "What did you guys fight over today?"

"It was stupid, I was stupid." Leo looked and was surprised to see a blush on her face. She met his eyes and they were surprisingly fierce. "If I tell you do you promise not to tell anyone else? You have to swear."

Leo searched her eyes but all he saw was that fierceness. "Okay," he said. "I swear I won't tell anybody."

She shook her head. "Swear on the River Styx."

Surprise filled him but he did as she asked. This must be very serious if she wanted an oath as binding as that.

She took a deep breath after he finished speaking. Her cheeks were flaming for some reason but Leo took no notice of it, and Annabeth couldn't seem to meet his eyes. "I- I want- Percy and I- well we were talking and I thought, just randomly- I didn't mean anything but- I- I asked him..."

"What?" Leo prompted, not sure what he should be preparing to hear.

Another deep breath. "I asked when he wanted to have sex with me."

Leo almost choked. Not that, he had not been preparing to hear that.

Oh gods... was he really going to get into this? Leo wasn't good with people at the best of times but this... this was way out of his comfort zone.

Suddenly Leo felt very awkward, his cheeks felt hot and he couldn't meet Annabeth's eyes. He took his arm off from around her shoulder and coughed.

"Oh."

Annabeth stared at him, looking slightly worried. "Yeah. Anyways, he reacted pretty much like you just did."

Leo blushed even harder. "Sorry."

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "It's okay. I was so embarrassed and I wanted to take the words right back and shove them down deep inside myself. But I couldn't. And then Percy said something, gods I don't even remember what it was; but I remember I got really hurt and angry and I stormed away from Thalia's Pine, where we were sitting. He chased after me, saying we had to talk about it and getting mad at me but I just wouldn't listen. I was so hurt Leo, and now I can't even remember what he said. How pathetic is that? I mean I don't even know if it was a refusal, I think I just assumed it was."

Leo struggled to speak past the awkwardness in his throat. "So... you're mad cause Percy didn't wanna... you know."

She nodded and Leo felt his respect and admiration for the son of Poseidon go up much higher.

Annabeth was like his sister, and while Percy was his friend- a good friend in fact, Leo had known Annabeth months longer than he had known Percy and couldn't help but feel protective of her. And while this topic made him wildly uncomfortable he couldn't help but realize then just how much older she and Percy were. A year wasn't much in some things but in this Leo felt Annabeth was much more mature than he was.

So he had to trust her.

"And why was Percy mad?" He asked, not completely understanding.

She shrugged and looked down, drawing pictures in the sand. "I wouldn't- I wouldn't listen to him. He tried to explain and then I stormed away and he got mad because he said I was just running away from the problem or something. I don't know." Annabeth sounded defeated when she spoke and Leo wondered idly what Percy was feeling right now. He wondered if he was as torn up over this as Annabeth was. He had certainly seemed it at the meeting for the brief time he had been there.

"Well then don't you think you should try to talk to him about it?" Leo asked her.

She looked up. "How am I supposed to do that when I'm too embarrased to even look at him? I'll probably just say something stupid again and then we'll be in an even bigger mess than we are now."

Leo thought on that for a second before standing up. Annabeth looked at him, confused, and Leo smiled at her, trying his hardest to forget the conversation they had just had. "I'll be back in a couple minutes, there's something I need to do."

She stared at him for a few seconds before speaking. "Okay."

Leo turned and ran off before she even finished the word. He headed to Zeus's Fist, hoping he would find who he was looking for there.

If he was going to try and get Annabeth and Percy to talk to each other again, he would need some help.

oooOOOooo

He found them sitting together just in front of Zeus's Fist. Thankfully they weren't kissing or anything, Jason just had his arm wrapped around  
Piper's shoulder.

"Leo?" Piper asked when she saw him. "Hey, what brings you here?"

"Listen guys, we've got a problem." Leo said right away. "I need you guys to do something for me."

Their faces turned serious and they glanced at each other before nodding slightly.

"What do you need?" Jason asked.

oooOOOooo

She knocked on Cabin Three's door, not even trying to hide her worry. After Leo's explanation/instructions Piper had been growing increasingly  
fretful.

She still wasn't sure what the couple had been fighting about but Leo had said to be prepared. For anything.

Sounded like a little bit of a red flag to the daughter of Aphrodite, but she tried to push that aside.

Jason was beside her, holding the hand that currently wasn't knocking on the door to the bunker.

"Go away!" The 17 year old locked in his own cabin yelled. "I'm sick."

"Percy? It's Piper. I have to talk to you."

"Piper?" The surprise in his voice was evident but it was gone quickly to be replaced with a roughness. "Go away, Piper, I'm not feeling well."

At least the last part wasn't a lie, Piper supposed. He must not be feeling well after a fight with Annabeth. She glanced at Jason, about to ask  
whether they should give up, but the son of Jupiter shook his head.

So she knocked again and this time she heard the sound of footsteps drawing closer. Finally, with Piper's hand about to knock again, the door opened to reveal a disheveled Percy.

Was it her imagination or was Percy really looking that bad. His hair was a mess, as always, but this mess didn't suit him as well. His eyes were wary and it broke Piper's heart to see the untrust in them, as if he was suspecting a trick. He seemed tired and his shoulders dropped slightly.

His eyes caught sight of Jason and he leaned against the doorframe, effectively blocking them from entering. "You didn't say Jason came with you."

Jason smiled at him. "Hey, Perce."

Percy nodded at him but he looked to Piper.

She raised her eyebrows. "Does it really matter if he's here or not?"

Jason shot her affronted look but she ignored it, focusing instead on Percy. A flash of something entered his eyes briefly but it left just as quick as it came. He shrugged. "I suppose not."

She nodded. "Good."

Something almost like a smile quirked the corners of his mouth up at that. "So why are you guys here, Piper? If Annabeth sent you, you can tell her-"

"Annabeth hasn't spoken to us at all today, Percy, so calm down. We're here because we're worried about you."

Jason nodded once. "We wanted to see if you were... okay."

Percy met Jason's eyes. "I'm fine."

Jason raised his eyebrows this time. "Really, Percy?"

"Look," the son of Poseidon spoke and he sounded slightly annoyed now. "Relationship troubles doesn't exactly call for a counseling session okay? Every couple fights, we'll be fine."

Piper sighed. "But it seemed like a pretty big fight, Percy-"

"Like I said, every couple fights. You and Jason will do your fair share and I'm sure when you do you won't want Annabeth and I poking our noses into it." Percy snapped.

Piper took a step back and the shock on Jason's face surely resembled her own.

Percy seemed to realize what he'd said and regret flashed on his face. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"I'm sorry," he said after a moment or two. "That was mean and untrue. I didn't mean it."

Piper swallowed past the lump that had appeared in her throat. "It's okay." She said and the concern in her voice was real. "Percy, what's wrong? What happened?"

He stared at her before glancing around. Finally he stepped away from the door frame. "You guys better come inside."

Jason cleared his throat, obviously having finally recovered from Percy's insult. "Okay."

Percy closed the door behind them and Piper wrinkled her nose at the mess in the cabin. She was used to neatness, color co-ordinated clothing, neat rows of shoes and vanities with groups of different types of makeup. She was used to the smell of perfume or body mists. Even in the Zeus Cabin, it wasn't messy. Jason had things ordered neatly and everything had it's place.

Percy's cabin was not like that. There was one bed that wasn't made, obviously having been slept in, and clothes absolutely everywhere. A small table beside his bed held picturesm, but there was also candy wrappers and even a coke can.

How did one person make such a mess all by themselves?

The actual cabin itself was beautiful. Glowing with color like it was actually underwater, Piper could see why Annabeth and Percy loved it here so much.

"Where did you get the coke?" Jason asked incredulous. "Can you hook me up?"

Piper rolled her eyes as Percy grinned. "I can't give up my suppliers name, they want it to remain top secret."

Jason studied him a few moments before speaking. "It was Travis and Connor wasn't it?"

Percy grinned wolfishly. "You didn't hear it from me."

Jason shook his head but he was smiling. "I have got to talk to those guys."

Piper cleared her throat. "Jason," she said fondly but firmly.

To his credit, Jason blushed. "Sorry, Pipes."

Percy looked back and forth between them before smiling. "Sorry about the mess, I'm not exactly organized."

Piper spotted a t-shirt on one of the windowsills. "Clearly," she said, but she couldn't help but smile.

Jason shrugged. "I've handled worse things than a messy cabin."

Percy nodded at that and turned to face them both head on again. "So, what was it you were doing here?"

Piper glanced at Jason before responding. "Percy... what happened with you and Annabeth? Leo told us she was pretty upset over it."

She tried to be tactful but she refused to beat around the bush. Hopefully this would be sorted out as quickly as possible and Piper could go back to cuddling herboyfriend in front of Zeus's Fist.

Percy sighed and went to sit on his bed. Piper and Jason followed, Piper sitting beside him, Jason on the floor in front of them.

"It's...complicated." Percy finally offered.

"Percy we've been the subject of 5 prophecies. We can handle complicated." Jason said.

Percy shook his head. "This may be worse, believe me. It took me completely off guard."

"So?" Piper asked expectantly. "What was it."

He hesitated before responding. "Swear not to tell? Not even Leo?"

Jason and Piper both nodded, although surprised. "We swear."

Percy's eyes narrowed. "On the River Styx."

Piper and Jason spoke as one. "We swear on the River Styx to never tell anybody outside this room what you are about to say to us."

Percy nodded and sighed, dipping his head to run his hand through his hair again in agitation. "Annabeth... she wants to know when we're gonna... take the next step in our relationship."

He blushed but Piper hardly noticed through her confusion. From the look on Jason's face he didn't understand either.

"What do you mean?" Jason asked.

"You know... do it." Percy replied slowly, his face resembling a tomato more and more.

"Oh," Piper said, her voice slightly higher pitch than usual. Finally, she understood what Percy was talking about.

Now just because her mother was the goddess of sexual essence didn't mean that Piper was comfortable discussing the topic. Sex was something Piper couldn't see happening until she was married, for her at least. And she knew that Percy and Annabeth were serious, but not that serious.

Aphrodite may be the physical embodiment of sex, but Piper was most definitely not. And she considered it important, not just one of those things people did. It meant something, especially the first time, and in Piper's opinion it shouldn't be taken lightly.

"And- and did you guys... ya know," Piper asked hesitantly.

Percy shook his head. "No. I- I told her I wasn't ready."

Piper let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding and felt relief well up inside her. Not that she thought it would be a bad thing, it was just... Oh Hades, she didn't even know.

She looked at Percy with new respect in her eyes. Usually it was the guy pressuring the girl, not the other way round. Well, that was what she heard from movies and books anyways, she hadn't actually been subject to it herself. At least Percy was taking his time to think about this, considering everything.

That was good, right?

Jason looked back and forth between them confused. "What the Hades are you guys talking about."

Piper looked at her boyfriend, inwardly cursing him for being so slow. This was something she preferred not to say aloud. "You know," she said and cleared her throat. "Sex."

Jason's face flamed. "Oh." Breath. "Oh." He repeated.

Percy shook his head. "I don't know what to do. I told her, I said I wasn't ready and she stormed off. She wouldn't even talk about it."

He looked up and his eyes were pleading, begging for an answer. "What do I do?"

"Well..." Piper glanced to Jason and saw he was still as shocked as ever. Boys. "Shouldn't you... try to talk to her?"

Percy looked at her incredulously. "And say something stupid to send her storming off again? No thanks."

She sighed in defeat. "Well I don't know, Percy. She's obviously hurt, so maybe-"

"Wait." Percy held up a hand. "Who said she was hurt? Why would she be hurt?" His voice was confused.

Piper stared at him, wondering for a moment if he really did have seaweed for brains as Annabeth liked to say.

Percy saw her looking. "What?" He asked.

Piper looked at Jason again and saw he looked confused as well. She shook her head. What was she going to do with them?

"She obviously thought you rejected her, Percy. She's hurt and confused. You're her first boyfriend right? That means she hasn't done this before, she's not sure what to do and she feels like she did it all wrong because in her mind, you said no." Piper explained, hoping he got it.

"But I didn't say no!" Percy exclaimed before blushing. "I didn't do that."

Piper shrugged. "Well she obviously feels like you did and now she's embarrased and confused. You have to talk to her, not stay holed up in your cabin."

Percy took in the words before suddenly springing up. "You're right. Gods, okay, I'll- I'll be back soon. Do you know where she is?"

Piper shook her head. "Sorry."

"Okay, thanks anyways. I'll see you guys later."

And with that he ran out of his cabin, leaving Piper and Jason alone.

Piper looked at Jason, Jason looked at Piper.

"Not until marriage," Piper said, voice firm.

Jason sighed in relief at her words. "Thank _gods_," he muttered.

As they stood up and took each other's hands, Piper smiled.

oooOOOooo

He found her sitting in their place.

Technically it wasn't their place, it was somewhere they had found while trekking through the woods one day, but they had been coming back ever since. They both loved it there.

It was in the woods, not too far in, at a stream. It was deep enough and wide enough to swim in and the banks were grassy enough to sit on or have a picnic. Whatever they wanted to do. There was even a mud puddle that seemed to never disappear and Percy and Annabeth had left the woods after a mud fight on more than one occasion.

It seemed Mr.D had been a bit too happy when he told them to hose off. The god had taken the pleasure of setting the water to freezing and although Percy hadn't felt the cold, Annabeth had been shivering afterwards.

This was their place, where they came for time alone from the rest of camp.

She was standing in the banks of the stream, feet in the water. Her hair was falling out of it's ponytail and blowing softly in the wind.

He walked towards her slowly, making sure to make enough noise to show her he was there. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her and send her running.

When he finally stood in the water beside her he grabbed her cheeks and brought her face to his. "How." Kiss. "Could." Kiss. "You." Kiss. "Be." Kiss. "So." Kiss. "Stupid." He growled at her.

She stared at him wide eyed before looking down. "I'm sorry."

Those words shook him, more than they should have. Annabeth didn't apologize, she fought back. He hadn't expected her to apologize, he ha expected her to cross her arms and ask him the same question right back.

But instead, she looked down, apologized, and now she went and sat on the bank, letting her feet dangle in the water. As he sat beside her he hesitated before taking her hand, something he hadn't done since the first week of dating her.

They sat in silence for minutes before he spoke again.

"I love you, you know." He said it while staring at the water and was it only his imagination or did her grip on his hand tighten slightly?

"I love you more," she said after a moment.

Percy turned to look at her and they spoke at the same time. "I love you most."

He smiled. No matter how corny that was it could always make him smile because he knew it was just so _true_. And when he saw her smile back he knew she felt the same.

But then the smile slid off her face, worry and panic filled her eyes and she bit her lip. "Percy, about- about what I said this morning-"

He shook his head, cutting her off. He ignored the red tinge on her cheeks as he was sure his were red as well. "I'm sorry for what I said. You have to know, I wasn't saying no, I was just... I was saying that we should think about it." He met her eyes steadily, not wanting to look away from the beauty of them. "Annabeth, this is big for me okay? And I don't want you to rush into anything. I want you to be sure, I don't want you to end up regretting it one day."

A slight sheen was in her eyes now, he could see it, but she smiled at him. "Oh, Seaweed Brain," she muttered before raising a hand to cup his cheek. "How could I ever regret anything to do with you?"

Suddenly a warm feeling spread through him and his heart was beating faster than a moment ago.

By the gods, what had he done to deserve her? Saving the world a couple of times? That was nowhere near amazing enough to deserve her. Next time he blamed the Fates for something in his life all he would have to remember was that they brought her to him, they, Aphrodite and most likely Hera a little as well, were who he had to thank for her.

He would forever be in their debt.

He leaned into her touch, making sure to hold her gaze. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize you would think that I- that I could ever possibly say no-"

"Shh," Annabeth leaned closer now. "I understand now. I'm sorry for running off."

He nodded. "But you're here now."

"Yes. I'm here. With you." She searched his eyes as he searched hers, knowing she was remembering those months apart and the fear of losing each other from Tartarus and the War. "And you're here with me." She added.

He leaned even closer. "We'll figure it out," he breathed. "We have each other now."

She closed the gap, leaving less than an inch between their lips. "Forever."

He smiled. "Always."

She closed her eyes. "Together."

He sealed the promise with a kiss.

oooOOOooo

**Review please! It would be very much appreciated! **

**Oh and it's exactly 1 month until the House of Hades! We can do it guys! **

**Love you all!**

**Percyjacksonfan3**


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